Happy New Year 2012

Happy New Year to one and all, I hope 2012 is a good one for you all!

Badminton Club Nights will resume on Thursday 5th January 2012 at 9pm.

End of Year...

The last club night of 2011 is Monday 19th December so to finish on a festive note we will be having a mince pie and a cuppa. It would be lovely to see as many members as possible coming in for a final bash and a catch-up before Christmas.

Membership for the season needs to be paid by next Monday, this covers each players insurance through Badminton Ireland as well as affiliation to play in all league competition during the season.

Connaught Closed Grade C - Div 5, 6, 7

The Connaught Closed for Grade C is taking place on Saturday 10th December 2011 in Castlebar. Competition is open to all players graded in Division 5, 6 or 7 (new Grade 8, 9 and 10). Singles will commence at 10am, Doubles at 12.30 and Mixed Doubles at 4pm. Entry fee is €8 per player per event or €20 to play in all three events.

Closing date for receipt of entries is Wednesday 7th December, entry forms are available at www.connacht.irishbadminton.com and must be returned to Therese O Brien, 12 Watersville, Pontoon Road, Castlebar, Co Mayo. Contact number is 087 2427987 or by email to thereseobrien@eircom.net

Badminton Exhibition - Castlebar Fri Dec 2nd

The poster is difficult to read but the information is as follows:

A Badminton Exhibition Match featuring some of Ireland’s top players will take place on

· Friday 2nd December in De La Salle hall Castlebar,7:30-9pm.

The players on court on the night will include:

Mayo’s No 1 and Ireland’s No 4 ranked Doubles player
David Walsh.

Former World ranked No 6 Singles player Richard Vaughan

Irish team player Leinster’s Will O Neill

Ireland No 1 doubles player Daniel Magee

This is a rare chance to see top class Badminton in County Mayo so come along and support.

Admission for exhibition matches is just 5 Euro, play will start at 7:30 and finish at nine.

There will be singles and doubles matches on the night.

Congratulations Anthony & Claire

We are delighted to send our warmest CONGRATULATIONS to Anthony, our treasurer, and his partner Claire on the arrival this morning of their little girl.

Welcome Baby Aimee!

Roscommon Closed Competition - November 27th

This years Roscommon Closed Competition will take place in our own sports complex in Boyle on Sunday 27th November. It is open to all players registered with Roscommon clubs in all divisions.

Entry forms will be available on club nights or contact me by email and I will be happy to send a form on.

While the Roscommon Badminton Association will look after running the competition we will need volunteers to help run the refreshments and shop for the day so if any members think they can help out for even an hour or two on the day please contact me by email or phone mobile
086 3737468.

Thank you

Liz

boylebadminton@gmail.com

Request from Coola

I received an email from Robert in Coola looking for a couple of extra male players to join them on their club nights, Wednesdays or Fridays.

If there is anyone in the club who might not be too far from the Riverstown area and who would be interested in an extra night of badminton please contact me and I will put you in touch with Robert.

Thanks

Liz

boylebadminton@gmail.com

Update...

We're back well over a month now and the club is going really well again this year so far. It is very encouraging to see so many new faces in and enjoying badminton. Padraic has continued some light training with anyone who wants to avail of it and it seems to be going down very well.

We started off the competition season just last night with a Division 6 game against Skreen in Sligo and although we were a couple of team members down we still managed a 3-3 draw. It was a very enjoyable and sociable match and got us off to a good start.

Club nights continue on Mondays from 9.30 til 11.30 and Thursdays from 9 til 11pm. We are always delighted to welcome new players so if there is anyone who has been thinking about taking up a sport for the Winter come in and give badminton a try in Boyle.

Back for 2011/2012

First week back and we've had two great nights. There was a lovely atmosphere on both Monday and Thursday evening with everyone keen to have a chat, catch up and what else?? ..... oh yeah play a game or two of badminton!

We were delighted to welcome some new faces and Padraic gave anyone who was interested some coaching time for a little while each night.

It gave everyone a great start and I think we're all looking forward to the season ahead.

Good to be back!

Roscommon Badminton Association AGM

The Roscommon Badminton Association held their AGM on Wednesday night last in the Abbey Hotel, Roscommon. It was very well attended by all clubs in the association. There were no alterations to the core committee who are: Donal Mee, Chairperson; Paul Lynch, Secretary & PRO; Liam Kelly, Treasurer; Tom Cox, League Secretary. The Connaught Delegates are Sean Staunton, Paul Lynch and Corrinna Delaney.

The meeting was attended by Tommy Hehir who is our Badminton Ireland representative as there is a change to the grading structure from this season forward. All players will be graded from Grade 1 to Grade 10. Grade 1 is the level of Ireland's No.1 Scott Evans and Grade 10 would be a beginners grade with everyone else falling in between. The new grading will be submitted and finalised by Badminton Ireland prior to the start of this years league competitions so hopefully by mid October.

Another issue which caused some debate at the meeting was the issue of shuttles, feather vs plastic. The outcome of this discussion was that should a team wish to play with feather shuttles in a match against a team who normally use plastic shuttles, as long as they provide the feather shuttles then the feather will take preference.

All clubs are anxious to get back and get started and the teams participating in the various league competitions are keen to see them getting underway earlier than they have in the past so it was agreed to try to implement a tighter schedule this year.

New Season to start...

Club play will recommence on Monday 12th September 2011 at 9.30pm. Club nights are Mondays from 9.30-11.30pm and Thursdays from 9-11pm.


As always we would be delighted to see some new faces giving badminton a go so we are setting aside the first hour of each night in September to help, encourage and give advice to anyone who is new to the club. It would be great if as many of our experienced members as possible were on hand to help. Coaching and training is always available to anyone who wishes to avail of it.


We look forward to seeing everyone back in the complex on Monday 12th and hope to welcome some new members too.

Div 1 Mens Doubles Invitational - Report

"..best tournament ever.. really well organised.."

"Wonderful hospitality"

"thoroughly enjoyable evening of badminton"

These were just some of the comments we received following our very sucessful competition in Boyle on Saturday 9th July.

Along with our own Boyle players, we had players who had travelled from Killeshandra, Galway, Cortoon, Sligo and Meath.

There were eight teams split in to two groups who played a round robin format in each, the top two pairings from each group then played in the Semi-Final and on to the Final.

In the first semi-final Padraic O Dowd and John Kiernan from our own club in Boyle met Liam Hyland and Ovidius from Oranmore in Galway and through a very tight match the visitors qualified for the final. In the second semi Sligo's Brian McGowan and Cortoon's Jonathan Clarke who had paired up for the competition came up against Paul Ennis and Matthew Duffy from Meath and this was another very close encounter however the lads from Meath just edged away to qualify for the Final.

So it was a Galway vs Meath Final and it proved to be a very exciting match as both sides fought hard to take the title however the Meath pair always seemed to be in control and proved worthy of their ultimate victory.

To put a competition such as this together takes a lot of hard work and committment and we are fortunate in Boyle to have a committee who is prepared to put in the effort required and we can again prove we are more than capable of hosting a top quality competition in Boyle. A note of thanks to all of the committee and also to Seamus for turning up once again with his camera.

Thank you to our sponsor Alan Simon of Ultimate Insulation.

Following the success of this tournament we hope to host more of this type of competition in Boyle in the near future so watch this space!

Good Luck Adrian..

We wish Adrian Cornwall the very best of luck competing on the Irish team in badminton in the Special Olympics World Summer Games in Athens.

Adrian plays in Sligo Tennis Club as part of the Shuttle Stars Club and is competing in Singles and Doubles competition.

Best wishes from all in Boyle Badminton Club.

Boyle to Host Division 1 Mens Doubles Invitational

Boyle Badminton Club will host an evening of top class Mens Doubles Badminton on Saturday 9th July 2011 from 6.30pm. Division 1 players from Sligo, Galway and Donegal have been invited to take part and will join local players to compete in what promises to be a showcase of the best doubles badminton in the province.

This will be a rare opportunity to see some of the top players in Connaught in action so we hope the event will attract quite a few spectators.

Report from AGM

The Club's AGM was held last night with 12 members in attendance and considering the good evening this was even better than expected.

The main focus of the meeting was how we can encourage as many new players and beginners as possible to give badminton a try. There were some very good suggestions proposed and we are hoping to put a plan together for the start of the season with this in mind.

A Draft Club Constitution and Club Rules were presented to the meeting for adoption. A copy of the constitution and rules will be made available to all members at the beginning of the new season.

A vote for Chairman was held and Sean Carroll, having served two years, was replaced by Derek Nolan. Secretary/PRO remains as Liz O Dowd, Anthony McKeon continues on as Treasurer and Padraic O Dowd will stay on as Club Captain.

We look forward to the new season and wish Derek the very best of luck in his new role as Chairman.

Club AGM 2011

Notice to All Club Members:

The Annual General Meeting of Boyle Badminton Club will take place next Thursday 2nd June 2011 at 9pm in Boyle Sports Complex. It would be great to see as many members as possible in attendance.

Thank you

Liz O Dowd
Secretary & PRO

End of Season

Unfortunately there were no Roscommon qualifiers from the Connaught Finals but congratulations to Boyle in Division 2, Ballinaheglish in Division 5 and Four Roads in Division 6 on their respective County titles and on their performances in Connaught, it was a great achievement to get that far.

Thursday 5th May 2011 will be the last night of play for this season. Come in if you can for a last game or two before the Summer break!

Connaught League Finals 2011

Best of luck to the Boyle Division 1 team as they compete against the Sligo Tennis Club in Galway on Sunday 17th April 2011 for the Connaught title.

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There will also be Roscommon clubs competing in Division 3 where Strokestown will meet Oranmore from Galway and in Division 6 Four Roads will face a round robin draw against Furbo from Galway and Ballinamore from Leitrim. There will also be a Division 5 Roscommon team competing however the County Final for this division only takes place on Thursday night between Ballinaheglish and Ballaghadereen/Loughglynn so that result won't be known until Friday. In Division 5 there will also be a round robin draw and so the Roscommon team will play the Sligo Tennis Club team and a team from the Galway Lawn Tennis Club. Best of luck to all the Roscommon players competing on Sunday.

******

The All -Ireland Finals will take place in Baldoyle in Dublin on 8th May.

Congratulations to League Winners

Congratulations to Division 6 Winners Four Roads on their recent League Final win over Ballinaheglish in Glinsk. The Final was a close 4-3 affair. The Division 7 Final was held last Tuesday in Four Roads where Ballinaheglish faced Ballygar. The winners were Ballygar with a comprehensive 7-0 victory. Best of luck to Four Roads when they represent Roscommon in the Division 6 Connaught Final in Galway on Sunday 17th April.

Roscommon Beat Kerry in All-Ireland Final

Let's be honest, how often are we going to get to read a headline like this!!

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The Final of the Inter County Class 4 competition was held in the Galway Lawn Tennis Club yesterday.

Back Row: Sean Carroll, John Kiernan, Padraic O Dowd, Marcin Paluch

Front Row: Bernie Lavin, Corrina Delaney, Mandy Toolan, Dianne Grappe, Audrey Delaney, Ruth O Hart

Roscommon started the day with a semi final against Waterford.

On Court 3 Ruth O Hart stepped out to play Ladies Singles and following a very close 3-set match the Roscommon lady came out on top. Marcin Paluch played the Mens Singles and enjoyed a relatively smooth victory over his Waterford counterpart.

The Roscommon Mens Doubles pairing of John Kiernan and Padraic O Dowd also endured a close 3-set match but in their third set they never looked like letting it slip and so Roscommon went to 3-0 overall. The second Mens Doubles pairing of Sean Carroll and Marcin Paluch played very well and took their victory in two sets.

Roscommon’s First Ladies Doubles, Audrey and Corinna Delaney of Strokestown, also showed great form and they took their match in two sets.

So Roscommon qualified with a 5-0 victory.

In the other semi final Galway had been overcome by Kerry and so Roscommon steadied themselves to meet the Kingdom team in the Final.

This time Audrey Delaney started with the Ladies Singles but despite putting in a worthy performance she was unable to get the better of the Kerry lady.

On an adjacent court Marcin Paluch in Mens Singles was barely troubled by his young opponent and so Roscommon were 1 game all as the Doubles started.

Both Mens Doubles pairings performed particularly well, John Kiernan and Padraic O’Dowd won their game in two sets as did Sean Caroll and Marcin Paluch.

However the Kerry ladies proved a formidable challenge for the Roscommon girls and although both Doubles Finals were close, Audrey and Corrina Delaney lost their game in two sets as did Ruth O Hart and Dianne Grappe.

Roscommon needed two of their mixed games to secure the victory. The pressure was on as all three mixed games took to the court at the same time. The Roscommon players showed tremendous fight and spirit and took the desired spoils in both the first and second mixed.

The entire Roscommon team put in a heroic performance and, especially given their narrow defeat at this same stage in 2010, truly deserved their 2011 All-Ireland title.

The winning Roscommon Team with Badminton Ireland President Ms Breda Caroll

Success at Sligo Doubles 2011

Congratulations to John and Padraic on their fantastic Grade A Mens Doubles win in Sligo on Wednesday last in the Sligo Doubles 2011 competition. After some very tough qualifying games the Boyle pair provided a thrilling performance to overcome Graeme and John from Sligo. Ruth and Mandy were also finalists in the Grade A Ladies Doubles final however they were narrowly defeated by Paula and Victoria from Sligo.

It was great to see Boyle represented in both finals and at such a very high standard of badminton, well done to all.

Another new arrival....Congrats Cormac!

Congratulations to Cormac Mullen and family on the latest arrival to their clann, little Rory.

Delighted to hear the news and that everyone is well....if a little tired!!

Junior Inter-Provincial Team Trials

Paul Dolan from Sligo informs of the following:

Trials for the inter provincial Junior team will take place in Sligo Tennis club on Sunday the 13th/3/11 at 5pm.

All interested players should be informed by their respective counties.
€5 per player payable on the day towards expenses.

Congratulations Geraldine!

Very best wishes to Geraldine Guckian, Kevin and family on the arrival of their beautiful baby girl, Rachel.

We've missed Geraldine very much this year but are thrilled with her wonderful news.

Roscommon Inter County 2011

Congratulations to the Roscommon County Team who were successful last Sunday in University of Limerick in coming out top of their group in Section 2 Class 4 beating Cork and Tipperary to advance to the Inter County Finals in Galway on March 27th where they will face Waterford.

Connaught Closed D and Connaught Closed C

The first Connaught Closed D competition is being held this Saturday, 5th February, in Galway Lawn Tennis Club and is open to Division 7 players only. There will be Singles, Doubles and Mixed competition. The closing date for entry is Wednesday 2nd February and cost of entry is €5 for 1 event, €8 for 2 events or €12 for all three.

The Connaught Closed C championship is being held on Saturday 12th February in Castlebar and is open to players from Division 5, 6 and 7. Again there will be Singles Doubles and Mixed competition on the day. The closing date for entry is Wednesday 9th February and cost of entry is €8 per event or €20 for all three.

Entry forms for both of these are available on club nights or can be sent in by email if you contact me on boylebadminton@gmail.com.

The Connaught Closed Competitions are a fantastic way for players to meet opponents from other clubs throughout the province in their own division and are always a great days badminton so it would be great to see a few entries from Boyle in both.

Connaught Closed A - Sligo Jan 29 2011

The Connaught Closed A for Divisions 1 and 2 took place in Sligo Lawn Tennis Club on Saturday 29th January 2011. There were some entries from Boyle in Mens Singles, Mens Doubles, Ladies Doubles and Mixed Doubles.


The doubles combinations of Marcin Paluch and John Kiernan and Ruth O Hart and Dianne Grappe both qualified to the semi final in their respective competitions but unfortunately did not get any further. There were also Boyle pairings in the semi finals of the mixed doubles competitions and having come up against some very strong competition they were unlucky not to have advanced to the final stage.

Well done to everyone who took part!

We need your old phones please...

Badminton Ireland have joined forces with the Jack and Jill Childrens Foundation to try to raise funds for sick children and their new scheme is "Phones for Kits".

If we, as a club, collect 160 old mobile phones we will receive an equipment pack which would include some rackets, shuttles, net, racket bag, fitness equipment and club polo shirts.

If anyone has an old mobile phone at home or if you know someone who gets their phone upgraded regularly and may have a collection of old phones please bring them in to the badminton club. Its for a very good cause and it will benefit the club also.

If everyone could get two or three phones we wouldn't be long collecting 160!

Roscommon Closed Ballygar Sun 23 Jan 2011

There were thirteen players from the Boyle club taking part in Doubles & Mixed competition in the Roscommon Closed in Ballygar on Sunday.

Trevor McDermott & Gabriel Regan played very well in Grade D Mens Doubles getting through to the semi-final. In Grade C Mixed, Tom Cox and Bernie Lavin also qualified for a semi-final.

Everyone enjoyed a nice day of badminton and it was a good chance to meet other players from Roscommon clubs. The Ballygar club who are only new to the league this year have a lovely sports hall and welcomed everyone with warm hospitality.

Hopefully the Roscommon Closed will be an annual event in the County badminton calendar.

Report - Connaught Closed B Sat 15th Jan 2011

We enjoyed another fantastic day of badminton this year for the Connaught Closed Junior B competition in Boyle on Saturday 15th January.

There were 47 competitors from all over Connaught taking part on Saturday in Singles, Doubles and Mixed Doubles and every player enjoyed plenty of games as apart from Mens Singles all the competitions were played on a Round Robin basis. Play started shortly after 10 in the morning and the last final finished at 8.30pm. We were delighted to receive such favourable comments from those participating and the general feeling was that they enjoyed a wonderful day's badminton, excellent hospitality and a very warm welcome in Boyle.

The winners on the day were:-

Mens Singles: Conor Caheny, Sligo LTC

Womens Singles: Janie Fahey, Loughglynn BC

Mens Doubles: Sean Carroll & Ciaran Oates, Boyle BC
Womens Doubles: Francie Mahon & Siobhan Parker, Sligo LTC

Mixed Doubles: Coadie & Janie Fahey, Loughglynn BC

A day like this can't happen without the dedication and committment of the club and committee. There were many of our members who helped out both on the evening before preparing the complex and on the day itself.

Thank you to the Friday night team, Padraic, Mandy, Sean, Cormac, Derek, Anthony, Deirdre and Trevor.

Thanks to our medical experts Derek Nolan and Paul Bradley for being on hand all day.

The shop was managed very well all day by Claire and Emily, there was great praise for the delicious sandwiches which were available right to the end of the day. Thank you girls! Also we must say thank you to Emer in Cooneys for the shop supplies, John for the fruit and Carmel Carroll for the soup.

Thanks to Donie O Connor for allowing us the use of his PA, it made calling players for courts much more manageable.

We had Cormac, Sean and Anthony on hand for most of the day to make sure there were new shuttles on the court before each game and for general jobs that needed looking after around the complex. Thank you also Sean for lending your laptop and projector. Seamus came in with his camera and stayed on until the end to take the prize giving photographs. Thank you lads.

Finally in the office there was Siobhan Ryan, Una and myself on registration, draw and score management but there was one lady who kept the whole show running for the day, if she hadn't been there I can't imagine how it would have run off so well and on schedule - you're a star, Mandy!

I hope I haven't left anyone out but in case I have I just want to say a HUGE thank you to absolutely everyone who helped in any way to make Saturday the success it was. We've shown once again that Boyle can be considered as a venue equal to the other large badminton centres in the west for hosting these events.

Well done everyone!

Roscommon Closed Competition

The Roscommon Closed Competition will be held in Ballygar Sports Complex on Sunday January 23rd, 2011. Competition is open to all registered players in Roscommon.

Further details are available on the website http://www.roscommoncountybadminton.com/ where the entry form is also available for down load.

Connaught Closed Junior B Competition - Jan 15th 2011

The Connaught Closed B Competition will be held in Boyle again this year on Saturday 15th January and is open to all players from Division 3, 4, 5 and 6. There will be Singles, Doubles and Mixed Competition with Singles starting at 10am, Mens and Ladies Doubles to start at 12.30pm and Mixed to start at 4pm approximately.

While the lead in time is short (this is mainly due to adverse weather we had in December which meant the club hardly met at all!) we hope that as many of our own players as possible will participate and we hope that all of those who thoroughly enjoyed last years competition will be able to come back again this year.

To make the competition a similar success to last year we will need all hands on deck so if you're available on Saturday 15th January even for an hour to give a hand in the shop or at the desk it will be greatly appreciated. There are plenty of jobs for everyone!

Entries for the competition should be returned to Mandy on the official entry form which will be available on club nights or can be emailed if preferred (boylebadminton@gmail.com).

2011!